Martin Luther King, Jr. was born in Atlanta Georgia in 1929 and was given the name Michael. He decided to change his name to Martin because he thought Martin had a more prominent ring to it. Dr. King grew up in the very segregated south where he experienced racism first hand. As a young child, he had many friends whom he liked to play with and one of these friends would always stick out in his memory. This friend was Dr. King’s childhood best friend and he just so happened to be white. One day, this friend came up to Dr. King and said they could no longer play together because he was white and Martin was black and his mother did not allow interracial friendships. This hurt Martin and was one of his first tastes of prejudice.

Dr. King was extremely intelligent and was able to graduate high school at the age of fifteen. After high school, he attended Morehouse College and then went on to attend Crozier Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania, following in his father’s footsteps. His father and grandfather were both pastors and Dr. King had always been a firm believer in God and longed to spread God’s word to as many people as possible. At Crozier, he was elected senior class president of a predominantly white senior class and graduated with honors. From here, he went to Boston University for his Doctor of Philosophy and ended up falling in love with Coretta Scott, a smart and artistic woman whom he married and they had had two sons and two daughters.

While at seminary, Dr. King became acquainted with the teachings of Mohandas Gandhi, a civil rights leader in India. He was interested in Gandhi’s philosophy of nonviolent social protest and travelled to India to meet with followers of Gandhi. It was here that Dr. King became more convinced than ever that nonviolent resistance was the best weapon available to combat prejudice. He displayed his newfound knowledge of nonviolent protests when he led an African American bus boycott in Montgomery Alabama. Dr. King and ninety others were arrested because police thought they were disrupting the operations of a business. This boycott earned Dr. King a national reputation as a powerful civil rights leader and he quickly became the hero of many.

In 1963, Dr. King was arrested and put in jail for leading a march into downtown Birmingham Alabama to protest segregation laws. While in jail, he wrote a letter of response to Southern clergymen who had written to a Birmingham newspaper urging African Americans to give up their fight for equal rights and to stop their demonstrations. Dr. King discussed his goal to completely end segregation in every aspect of public life in this Southern town in his letter. This meant no separate bathrooms, no separate drinking fountains, no discrimination in town stores, and no job discrimination. He wanted equal rights for everyone; “past promises have been broken by the politicians and merchants of Birmingham and now is the time to fulfill the natural right of all people to be treated equal.” This heartfelt letter from the Birmingham Jail changed the way some people looked at segregation and African Americans were inspired to stand up for their rights.

Also in 1963, President John F. Kennedy proposed a bill to Congress asking for legislation that would provide “the kind of equality of treatment that we [white politicians] would want for ourselves.” Southern representatives in Congress fiercely blocked this bill, causing civil rights leaders to organize a massive march in Washington, D.C. The participation of white groups as well as black groups was encouraged by the organizers to show the multiracial backing for civil rights. On August 28, 1963, more than 250,000 people, one-fifth of them white, gathered near the Washington Monument to rally for equality. Many speakers delivered their messages, but Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech was by far the most moving. The poignant and incredibly famous speech was originally supposed to be a short speech, but Dr. King was energized and empowered by shouts from the audience and delivered a long speech that is arguably the most well known in America’s history. He shared his dream for all people of all races and all colors and backgrounds to live in peace and share in an America marked by freedom and democracy. (Dr. King’s full “I Have a Dream Speech” can be found in the quotes section of this website.)

A mere five years after his “I Have a Dream” speech, at only thirty-nine years old, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated. He was shot by James Earl Ray, a convicted criminal, who had been sentenced to prison several times before he killed Dr. King. The sniper shot him as he stood on the balcony of his hotel room in Memphis, Tennessee. News of his death was greeted with an outpouring of grief and rage all around the world. Riots erupted all over the country and marches were held all over the world to honor Dr. King’s memory. As a controversial figure, his life had been threatened many times and King himself had said that he did not expect to live a long life. At least thirty planes and one hundred buses were chartered from all over the country to bring mourners to Atlanta for the burial. Dr. King was turning his attention to a nationwide campaign to help the poor at the time of his assassination. He had held firm in his belief that nonviolence must remain the central tactic of the civil rights movement. Dr. King had faith that everyone in America would someday attain equal justice and freedom.